Global Trends In Teacher Education

Papers presented at the National Seminar on Global Trends : Re-looking at Teacher Education, held at Warangal in March 2006.

Education policymakers often demonstrate surprisingly little awareness of how popular reforms impact teaching and teacher education. In this book, well-regarded scholars help readers develop a more robust understanding of the nature of teacher preparation, as well as an in-depth grasp of how popular policies, practices, and ideologies have taken root domestically and internationally. Contributors include Deron Boyles, Anthony Cody, Kerry Kretchmar, Carmen Montecinos, Beth Sondel, and Christopher Tienken. “This book will help readers consider the possibilities of democratic visions in the teaching profession and in public education, particularly in this time of intense political polarization when critical citizen engagement with our public institutions and policies is deeply needed.” —Janelle Scott, University of California, Berkeley “The chapters in this book make clear that ongoing policy disconnects cannot be ignored and that now is the time to elevate the teaching profession for students who have faced historical inequities.” —Julian Vasquez Heilig, dean, University of Kentucky College of Education “Public teaching and teacher education in the U.S. and in many other parts of the world are under assault by concerted efforts to deregulate and marketize them. This collection of essays examines the consequences of these privatization efforts in the U.S., Chile, and Singapore and should be required reading for those wanting to understand their complexity and consequences for teaching and teacher education today.” —Ken Zeichner, Boeing Professor of Teacher Education, University of Washington

This book focuses on current trends, potential challenges and further developments of teacher education and professional development from a theoretical, empirical and practical point of view. It intends to provide valuable and fresh insights from research studies and examples of best practices from Europe and all over the world. The authors deal with the strengths and limitations of different models, strategies, approaches and policies related to teacher education and professional development in and for changing times (digitization, multiculturalism, pressure to perform).

Contemporary Trends in Education: A Handbook for Educators is an enriched resource for future teachers and teacher educators working with limited resources. It provides in-depth theoretical underpinnings and discusses the planning formats and implementation schemes extending to the real classroom and the field situations. The text aims to complement the teacher educators' experiences which would feed into the respective teacher training programmes, benefitting their students and gradually add strength to school education. It is based upon course specific enrichment material for pre-service as well as in service teacher training programmes for all levels of school education.

Foregrounding the diversity that characterises various educational settings, this book discusses how histories and geographies of oppression, exclusion and marginalisation have impacted on teacher education. Contributors draw on first-hand experiences of living and working in countries including Brazil, China, South Africa, New Zealand and Malawi. Positioned in a geographical and metaphorical ‘Global South’, the book draws critical attention to debates which have been otherwise marginalised in relation to those conducted in the ‘Global North’. Chapters address difference and diversity on both a conceptual and empirical level, acknowledging the significance of various global trends including increased migration and urbanisation; and broadening understandings of race, religion, gender, sexuality and dis/ability. Taken together, these chapters reveal the extent of the work which still remains to be done in the field of teacher education for diversity. The issues discussed are of global significance, making this text key reading for teachers, teacher educators, and those concerned with the advancement of social justice and reduction of inequality through education.

With chapter contributions from seminal scholars in the field of comparative and international education (CIE), this book examines the ways in which comparative education is being taught, or advocated for, in teacher education within higher education institutions worldwide. A particular concern raised by the authors - in locations as diverse as Germany, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States - is the utilitarian approach in teacher education, where that which is valued is that which is measurable. The implications for what and how CIE should be taught is examined in light of the ideological, sociocultural, political, and economic trends influencing education worldwide. The main questions posed in the book include: What are the challenges and opportunities for CIE, and its practice, now and in the future?